The Space Shuttle Survivors

Space Transportation System

The Space Shuttle was designed to be a reusable vehicle providing routine
access to space. While it has not lived up to its design goals, it did
fly 8 to 10 flights a year and supported both the Hubble Space Telescope
and International Space Station. While each orbiter was expected to
fly 100 missions, the program itself flew only 135 flights over its
30 year operating span of 1981 to 2011. Shuttle missions were never
as routine as once hoped, but each mission was spectacular in its
own right starting with an amazing light and sound show on launch, and
those signature double sonic booms on landing. Those spectacular missions,
however, came with a high price as two flights ended in accidents resulting
in the loss of vehicle and loss of crew. In the end, high costs and
safety concerns doomed the program. I cannot help but think that a piece
of America died the day that the shuttle program was canceled, leaving
our nation with no direct access to space for human crews.